Mike Nadel: The bigger they are, the harder Vazquez falls

Javier Vazquez is to big-game pitchers what Elmer Fudd is to big-game hunters.

Mike Nadel

Javier Vazquez is to big-game pitchers what Elmer Fudd is to big-game hunters.

Looking ahead to the important three-game series at Minnesota, Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen started Vazquez, Mark Buehrle and Gavin Floyd on three days' rest last week. As grand experiments go, this has been about as successful as Dairy Queen's short-lived Turpentine Blizzard.

Counting Tuesday night's 9-3 loss to the Twins, Ozzie's strategy has yielded a 1-3 record for the team and an 8.55 ERA for Vazquez, Buehrle and Floyd.

Then again, maybe Guillen is on to something. Vazquez and the Sox relievers were so bad in the opener that they surely got the Twins all tuckered out for the rest of the series. I mean, during Home Run Derby, the sluggers who go bonkers in the first round usually struggle later, right?

Buehrle and Floyd certainly hope that's the case in Games 2 and 3. If not, the White Sox could author the latest chapter in their ongoing screenplay: "Groundhog Day at the Metrodome." Given all the heartbreaking defeats suffered here over the years, 2010 can't arrive soon enough for the Sox; that's the year the Twins move into a new ballpark.

Even though Tuesday's loss had a "here we go again" feel to it, the Sox still aren't officially in trouble. Having
entered this battle-of-attrition series 2 1/2 games ahead of the Twins in the AL Central, the Sox really only need to win one of the three before heading home for a weekend series against Cleveland.

Still, White Sox fans can't be comforted by the fact that Vazquez will be on the mound Saturday against the Indians on three days' rest.

Three days, four days, whatever ... timetables don't seem to matter much to Vazquez. He was roughed up on three days' rest at Yankee Stadium last Thursday and allowed five runs in four innings Tuesday, when he was operating on his normal schedule.

Before we blame everything that happened Tuesday on Vazquez, it's not as if White Sox hitters came through in the clutch against Twins starter Scott Baker. The Sox threatened only twice: Ken Griffey Jr. hit into a double play to squelch a possible second-inning rally, and A.J. Pierzynski grounded out with the bases loaded to end the fifth.

Griffey -- apparently another failed experiment, this by GM Ken Williams -- did deliver a two-run homer in the ninth, enabling the Sox to lose by six runs instead of eight. Take that, Twinkies! It was Junior's second HR in two months.

Vazquez, meanwhile, never gave the Sox a chance to win as his record fell to 12-15. He is 127-128 in his career, a remarkably sub-mediocre mark for a pitcher who supposedly has "great stuff."

Last year, Williams gave Vazquez a three-year, $34.5 million extension through 2010 -- an investment that has paid off only slightly better than financial stocks purchased back then. (According to sources, Congress isn't considering a government bailout for the White Sox.)

After pitching in relative anonymity for the Montreal Expos, Vazquez earned his reputation for shriveling up in big games during his one season (2004) with the Yankees. He had a 4.91 ERA under the New York glare and followed that with a 9.53 postseason ERA. The Yankees dropped him from the rotation for the AL Championship Series.

Big Game Freddy Garcia, he isn't, a fact that led Guillen to challenge Vazquez publicly over the weekend.

"He hasn't been (a clutch pitcher), that's the bottom line," the manager said. "You have to be mean. Go out there and show them we show up to play, show up to kick (the opponents' posteriors)."

Before Tuesday's game, Ozzie said the issue of Vazquez's readiness for big games was "overblown."

"I just want Javy to be aggressive," Guillen said. "I want him to show he's The Man here."

Guillen later whined about a perceived lack of respect the White Sox receive -- a familiar lament in Ozzie Land -- but here's the deal:

If Vazquez is The Man, it's hard to believe the White Sox have what it takes to be The Team.

Mike Nadel (mikenadel@sbcglobal.net) is the Chicago sports columnist for GateHouse News Service. Read his blog, The Baldest Truth, at www.thebaldesttruth.com.